Modernism and the Law (New Modernisms) - Hardcover

For legal scholars interested in the general topic of modernism and the law, this book provides some detailed and dense information that may help serve as an introduction. What Spoo does in the book is provide a balance between the theoretical foundation necessary to best understand modernism and numerous examples of how it connects to law. For those interested in understanding the study of socio- and sociolegal studies and beyond, this book is invaluable. Summing Up: Essential. * CHOICE * Robert Spoo takes us on a journey to understand modernist literature, its authors, how they were affected by the law and how it changed their writing. Spoo even discusses how the law was changed to accommodate writers at times ... Professor Spoo makes this an engaging work, and does not get bogged down with citations and the minutiae that many books on law do; he keeps it moving and focuses on the authors while examining how the law has changed during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. * San Francisco Book Review *

Exploring critical legal issues and cases of the period-from Oscar Wilde's prosecution for gross indecency to legal bans on such publications as D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, and James Joyce's Ulysses-Modernism and the Law is the first book to survey the legal contexts of transatlantic Anglo-American modernist culture. Written by one of the leading authorities on the subject, the book covers such topics as:

· Obscenity laws and censorship
· Copyrights, moral rights, and the public domain
· Patronage and literary piracy
· Privacy, defamation, publicity, and blackmail

Including an annotated list of relevant statutes, treaties, and cases, this is an essential read for scholars and students coming to the subject for the first time as well as for experienced scholars.